Game Overview:
In Hot Wheels World’s Best Driver, players join the ranks of Team Hot Wheels and compete in dozens of unique, fast-paced, highly replayable challenges highlighting the driving styles of the different teams – the record-breaking speed of the Green Team, the show-stopping stunts of the Red Team, the super-tight precision of the Blue Team or incredible power of the Yellow Team. Featuring 24 outrageous and iconic Hot Wheels vehicles and set in four under-the-radar test facilities around the world, the game pushes players to their limits to see if they have what it takes to become Hot Wheels World’s Best Driver.

]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=7662014-11-04T00:27:21Z2011-02-04T04:44:05ZBrandon Van Slyke is a professional video game designer with experience designing and developing successful commercial games for companies such as Gameloft, Large Animal Games, Vicarious Visions (Activision Blizzard), Blue Fang Games, and Firebrand Games.

Some of his credits include the IGF Design Innovation Finalist Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island (PC), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox360, PS3), “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” (Facebook) and Guitar Hero iPhone.

Brandon is a highly resourceful designer who excels at communicating details and implementing results. His technical background, multi-faceted experience, and design techniques have provided him the means to confidently approach production challenges while maintaining a keen eye on the player experience.

As a passionate and respected member of the game development community, Brandon actively seeks ways to contribute within the industry. His efforts include participating in Game Development organizations, frequently volunteering at events and conferences, writing trade articles, and authoring content for his community website nycgameindustry.com.

Brandon was born and raised in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. He studied game art and design at the Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby and was a member of the first graduating class of game design students at Vancouver Film School. His other interests range from web development and programming to snorkeling, playing bar trivia and discussing films and our space program with friends.

Game Overview:
Criminal mastermind Carmen Sandiego and her V.I.L.E. henchmen have launched a global crime spree, and it’s up the player to track them down. Players interview witnesses for clues about the criminal’s identity and whereabouts, fly to cities to track down leads, and finally issue an arrest warrant and put the suspect behind bars. Players have a certain number of days to complete the case, but can take shortcuts by spending Facebook Credits.

Responsibilities:
• Wrote comprehensive design specs: player leveling, game flow, monetization, etc.
• Used proprietary tools to input and manage all game data, including NPC characteristics
• Performed research related to in-game content and edited writer scripts

Additional Notes:
This project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. Like many in my generation, I’d grown up playing the original incarnations of Carmen Sandiego on PC. It was one of the games that my late grandfather and I bonded over. So when the chance to help design a brand new version of the game for Facebook presented itself I jumped at the opportunity.

Throughout production I wrote 10 to 12 highly detailed design specs covering a range of different features and game systems. The specs included flowcharts, photoshop mock-ups, state machine breakdowns, and spreadsheets as needed. After incorporating feedback from the Creative Director the specs were sent to the team and used as a blueprint for implementation. Features included the player leveling system, case status system, ACME database, Facebook notification, monetization, etc.

I was also responsible for working with engineering to integrate the proprietary design tool used to edit game data, update strings, track/implement in-game content, and make changes to the database. As the tool progressed I used it to populate the game with the vast amounts of data it required before launch. I also spent time researching various city locations and helped to edit and format text that was submitted by the contract writing team.

All in all, this project was a great experience and I really enjoyed the time I spent with the team working on it.

Game Overview:
Guitar Hero is a game in the Guitar Hero music video game series released for the iOS including iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. The gameplay in Guitar Hero iPhone is very similar to the console Guitar Hero series except for the use of instrument controllers. Instead, the game uses the iOS device’s multi-touch display. The player can choose to play either Guitar or Bass Guitar.

Responsibilities:
• Acted as challenge and gameplay lead
• Designed and implemented data for challenge progression system
• Tuned tap timing and touch responsiveness for optimum playability
• Worked with art and engineering to incorporate assets and test content

Additional Notes:
During the production of Guitar Hero iPhone I was responsible for designing and implementing various core gameplay features. This included the challenge system and overall reward structure, game progression, and in-game community and social features.

Additionally, I worked at optimizing Guitar Hero iPhone’s gameplay for a touchscreen device. I spent a lot of quality time fine-tuning different gameplay elements like swipe responsiveness, size of the note-catcher window, tap gem forgiveness, and overall balance and tuning of the star power energy meter.

Much of my work was done using the company’s proprietary development tools on a PC in conjunction with builds and tests performed on a Mac. The game was announced on June 7th, 2010 during Steve Jobs’s keynote presentation at the 2010 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=5932014-11-13T04:05:52Z2010-05-08T01:13:27Zgd01brandon [at] gmail [dot] com
]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=5742014-11-13T04:06:19Z2010-05-04T01:44:02Z – Facebook – Linkedin – Google+ – YouTube – Moby Games
]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=5692014-11-04T05:45:32Z2010-05-03T22:33:39ZTweets by @bvslyke
]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=5642014-11-04T05:47:36Z2010-05-02T03:28:38ZGreetings and welcome to the online nexus point for everything Brandon Van Slyke. Take a moment to check out my gameography and learn more about who I am and what I do. Thanks for stopping by!
]]>0BVShttp://brandonvanslyke.comhttp://www.brandonvanslyke.com/?p=4102014-11-04T05:48:06Z2010-01-13T05:45:11Z

Game Overview:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is an action role-playing game for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 that features characters from the Marvel Comics universe and follows elements of the Secret War and Civil War story arcs.

Additional Notes:
I served as the Combat and Powers designer on this project and was tasked with leading a team of animators, visual effects artists, and software engineers to develop the look and feel of all core in-game actions. This included features like melee combat, hero powers, grabs/throws, jumps, and general traversal.

Throughout pre-production I worked closely with the Creative Director to define each hero’s character class and then designed movesets that worked within those constraints. Additional research and prototyping was performed in order to ensure all powers and abilities remained faithful to official Marvel cannon.

During production I implemented and tuned character data using a combination of scripting and the studios proprietary game engine. I also directed our VFX and animation team in the creation of workable assets. I handled everything from animation blend times to defining individual attack radius, force, and pop-up values. It was a great experience.

As a fan of the genre, I took inspiration from other popular combat focused games and tuned input responsiveness by aggressively iterating in a custom modeled white box environment. I also attended review meetings and worked closely alongside our Mission and AI teams to ensure that our work remained complimentary to the overall experience.

MUA2 was released on September 15, 2009 to favorable reviews. Many critics sited improved gameplay, the new fusion abilities, and a more engaging and thought provoking narrative as reasons for the game’s success.